Our nation has mourned and somehow moved on from the events of Sept. 11, 2001. This day was the day that America stopped and stood in agony, over the loss of so many brave and courageous men and women. And on this day America was helpless. We cried and feared for what was to come.

Now, one year later, America has come to a point where we have somewhat regained our safety zone. More people are traveling on planes again, however the airlines industry has suffered greatly. We not only will be mourning the loss of helpless unsuspecting victims of the World Trade Center attacks, but also the lives that were lost in Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. and also the most important are the people who have to live on without their loved ones. My heart reaches out to these people, because although I did not personally know anyone that lost their life on Sept. 11, I cried in front of the television all day. Just like a lot of Americans, I was in shock and feared for what might happen next.

I was driving on my way to school, when I heard on the radio that a plane had just flown into the WTC, and everyone still thought it was just a tragic accident. At first I thought it was a joke and switched the channel. I found that when I switched the channel, it was on every station; that made me believe that something was not right. I hurried to park and practically ran into the building and found one of my teachers. The radio station had given a web site to go to and I asked if she could get in. Of course, the site was busy so we went into the communication office and found a television. The next thing we saw made each person in front of the screen gasp, the second plane headed for its target, the second building. “That’s not real,” I said. No one ever believed that someone would plan to fly a plane into the WTC. My class was about to begin and we had the television on as my teacher told us that we were watching history in the making. After the first building collapsed, my teacher canceled class. I went home crying as I listened to the radio. The rest of my day was spent in front of the television, watching one bad thing happen after another.

I still do not want to believe that this happened a year ago. Sometimes it feels like yesterday that I sat in that classroom and watched America fall to pieces in front of the world. I still feel anger and hatred for the terrorist of Sept. 11. I cannot see how anyone could cheer for the loss of a life, especially the loss of thousands of lives from so many different countries. America was not the only place on Earth that lost loved ones and we will not be the only ones mourning this approaching day.

I worked at T.J. Maxx when this happened and our company lost seven of its workers on the planes. I remember reading about the young women that were lost. They were all on the two planes that crashed into the WTC. All of these women were between the ages of 25 to 45 and most of them had young children, some of them had babies under a year old. This makes me ask how these people have managed to move on from this tragedy. I cried for their loss for a long time, and I know I will cry again for them for years to come, because America will never forget what happened on September 11. Many people have a constant reminder of this day. And New York will never be the same.